The present invention relates to a vibration isolation pad which may be made in sections to facilitate its installation in building floors to provide an effective means for reducing sound transmission and for eliminating vibration.
In the effort to reduce sound and vibration transmission through buildings efforts have been made to locate the noise producing equipment as far as possible from those areas that are sought to be free from noise and vibration effects, however, because it has been sought to reduce weight loads in buildings, noise and vibration transmission has become more of a problem as newer structural construction members have become lighter in weight and longer in dimensions which effectively increases the noise level problems.
The present invention effectively reduces the sound transmission between noisy and quiet areas since the vibration isolation pad can be made to directly support the machine or apparatus producing the noise as part of the structure thereby facilitating its sound deadening and noise absorbing characteristics immediately at the source or the vibration isolation pad can be made to directly isolate the entire base support of a noise and vibration producing means to indirectly support such noise producing means and thereby also eliminate the noise and vibration at the source. The vibration isolation pad thus operates directly in the effected area permitting greater flexibility in locating machinery in buildings and manufacturing facilities. Such vibration isolation pads are substantially superior over those sound deadening means which are resilient pad mounted directly to or under the machines. The invention herein permits the installation and use of vibration isolation pad over a large area of support, followed by the installation of a floor, a base support or a concrete pad directly on the vibration isolation pad to thereby effectively isolate the base support but provide a firm base.
Because the vibration isolation pad is a composite of plastic and rubber, it may be readily cut or fabricated in various shapes, contours and sizes in order to be useful in wide varieties of structures. Also the vibration isolation pads are lightweight for easy installation and safe handling.